This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Science from a soapbox offers novel Halifax platform to raise profile of women in STEM

HALIFAX—This Saturday, 12 women will be stepping onto their soap boxes to share details of their research during Atlantic Canada’s first Soapbox Science event.

The award-winning science outreach program was created in 2011 in the U.K. to promote women who are experts in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector.

Emma Finlayson-Trick is a masters candidate in microbiology and immunology at Dalhousie University and an organizer of Atlantic Canada’s first Soapbox Science event happening Saturday in Halifax. (Nick Pearce / Dalhousie University)

The grassroots initiative does this by bringing them out onto the streets. The first two Soapbox Science events in North America were held in Toronto in May and September of 2017. A third was held last month in Windsor, Ont.

On Saturday, the two latest North American Soapbox Science events are happening in Halifax and Calgary.

“Soapbox Science is a novel platform to give women a chance to describe their own research as well as increase the visibility of women in science,” explained Emma Finlayson-Trick, Halifax event organizer and a master’s candidate in microbiology and immunology at Dalhousie University.

Article Continued Below

“The women represent all areas of STEM, and so we have some astrophysicists, some chemists, some infectious disease specialists, statisticians, all ranges. The idea is for them to describe their research in very simple terms to the public so that they can ask questions and get some answers.”

Finlayson-Trick said she considers herself fortunate to have attended a high school where there was a 50 per cent male/female ratio in all her classes. She never once questioned her decision to pursue a career in science until she got to university.

“I never really quite realized the gender disparity until I came to university, at which point while I was surrounded by a lot of female classmates, most of the professors were male,” she recalled.

Finlayson-Trick said while she had “wonderful” interactions with many of those male professors, they weren’t able to serve as role models to a young aspiring female scientist in the same way a female professor could.

Interested in helping the next generation of young women identify their own female role models, last October she put in an application to host a free Soapbox Science event in Halifax. Her proposal was accepted in November.

She and co-organizers Alison Thompson from Dalhousie’s chemistry department and Craig McCormick from the university’s department of microbiology and immunology got to work securing a Soapbox lineup that includes female scientists from both Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s University, as well as one speaker from the University of Alberta.

“Why I was interested in Soapbox Science was (to help me with) identifying my own personal role models but also, a publication I read that came out in 2017 showed that by the age of six, girls were already identifying traits like brilliance as being male traits,” she said.

Article Continued Below

“That’s pretty alarming, and I think it’s important to have this kind of event to show to a very young population that there are brilliant female scientists.”

In Halifax, the event will take place in front of the bustling Halifax Seaport Farmers Market between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. There will be four speakers each hour, and a number of related hands-on activities geared toward a younger crowd. However, participation and questions are encouraged from all passersby.

Finlayson-Trick said because the Soapbox Science platform gives women a chance to describe their own research in terms the general public can understand, it encourages and engages a younger audience. She also believes it has the power to significantly increase the visibility of women in STEM.

“I think it’s important to be able to see that there are a lot of female scientists in Halifax. A lot of the time the scientists that you see on television, they’re not women. The normal science communication routes, like interviews when newscasters bring in specialists, those have the capacity to reach a lot of people,” she said.

“But they’re not featuring the female scientists. So an event like this where even if someone doesn’t come to the event but is simply walking by and sees a woman in a lab coat, I think that has a really strong lasting image that features a woman in science.”

Finlayson-Trick hopes to make Soapbox Science Halifax an annual event that will draw on different researchers each year. When asked which speaker she’s most looking forward to, she said it’s impossible to choose.

“I think it depends on where your interests lie. Dr. Christine Chambers is doing amazing research on pain in children … and that has the capacity to affect a lot of people. Also Dr. Mita Dasog is doing work on harnessing chemical energy,” she said.

“Then Dr. Alyson Kelvin is doing research on influenza and how different demographics like age play a role in how the virus infects you. Depending on what you’re interested in, there’s a lot going on. We are looking forward to sharing all of it.”

Yvette d’Entremont is a Halifax-based reporter covering health, environment and education. Follow her on Twitter: @ydentremont

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com